Double Six
by LilyBartAndTheOthers
Summary: "Nobody knew and so what? There was something enticing in the idea of being friends with benefits." - Peregrinations through Jane and Maura's secret life.
1. Chapter 1

**Jane**

It started slowly. A light touch followed by her warm breath; between her legs, boiling then in her lower stomach as she restrained a first sigh. The air was hot. Humid. As much as the moon had substituted to the sun, temperatures hadn't lowered much and soon enough, a drop of sweat slid along her spine as she arched her back in what marked her first, obvious reaction to the touch.

She bit her lip, restraining a moan that she didn't want to give and closed her eyes to focus better on the sensations she was experiencing. The fingers went up her thigh – barely brushing the skin but enough to arouse her even more – before sliding along her breast; dying in the depth of her neck.

She knew these gestures by heart but they hadn't lost their effect. On the contrary. The more she had to face them, the stronger they appeared. Intense. Hard to deal with.

Her breath suddenly turned rough as the pace of the caresses increased. She frowned, swallowed hard. Grabbed the bed sheet tightly. The second hand had now reached her breast and was softly massaging it while the other one had got lost again on her inner thigh; the fingertips playing with the sensitive skin. Quiet sighs were now escaping from her lips, no mattered how much she tried to hold them back.

It was all about focusing, all about making it last; even if the ministrations were now getting the best of her in a dizzy motion.

In a matching – subconscious – gesture, she licked her lips before pushing the head closer to her body; in a desperate plea, an instinctive one. Her movement elicited a moan – down there, between her legs- echoing throughout her whole body.

"Gosh..."

What was it in the end that people always tried to hold it back when they felt their orgasm build in their lower stomach? They knew the release would come and within it a strong, powerful sensation of such an explosion of feelings. Yet they did their best to postpone it; losing themselves in the sweet torture of restrained urges.

Every touch was setting her body on fire. The mere caress – hands, fingers, tongue, lips – making her swallow hard and move uncontrollably. She was shivering, catching the hot air of a Boston summer night whenever she opened her mouth and let a sigh come out.

A hand passed on her lower stomach before going up to her breast. As both skins made contact, Jane's eyes opened widely and she stared at the ceiling in the dark. The sheet had been discarded now by her constant moving and she laid there – naked – exposed to the night, to stimulating ministrations that did nothing but drive her crazy.

All of a sudden, the light – hot – breeze of the outside passed by the open window and embraced her body. Her hand tightened on the head; her back arched itself. She remained still, her mouth wide open as the exhilaration of her senses exploded in her lower stomach before spreading throughout the rest of her body. A few seconds of an intense life during which nothing mattered but the power of hormones released by her brain.

Breathless, she let kisses softly caress her stomach before going back up; a whole body sliding with fluidity on top of her, between her legs. She squeezed the waist to enjoy the contact fully.

Lips brushed her neck and she smiled brightly.

"Maur'..."

...

**Maura**

A double six. She remembered how the dices had hit the coffee table in a short – blank – sound before turning around themselves and finally stopping on these two numbers.

The odds of rolling six out of two dices is one hundred out of twenty-five. Not impossible yet entirely abandoned to the hands of coincidences. Unless everything is written in advance.

At times, Maura liked thinking about it; losing herself in what-ifs. She wouldn't forget that evening for it having settled down the most daring pact of her existence. A smile had slid on her lips and as she had looked up at Jane on the other side of the table, she hadn't said anything.

She had won. She would get what she had bet on in the first place. Right now. There. In the quietness of her friend's bedroom. The vapors of alcohol had wrapped up her mind of a thick mist, making her inhibitions fall one by one. She wanted it; Jane too, she could feel it in spite of the apprehension that had embraced the brunette's face.

Leaned up on her elbows, she captured Jane's lips in a deep – sensual – kiss; aroused by the way the detective had wrapped up her legs around her waist to keep her close to her naked, shivering body.

Her breasts brushed the brunette's as she slowly traced a path of kisses down her neck before rolling on her side to catch back her breath. She hadn't grown accustomed to sleeping with her but addicted to it.

After all, it should have been the matter of a night. Just one.

But the limits of the pact had faded away with the passing of time. Actually, as soon as Jane had grabbed her hand one evening only to take her back to her bedroom. Without saying a word, Maura had agreed.

Then what was supposed to be a mere coincidence had turned into a pleasurable habit.

"Maur'..."

Biting her lower lip – delighted by Jane's hoarse and lustful voice – the honey blonde looked up at her and rose a mischievous eyebrow.

Five minutes before round two. Before she got to be the one who would quietly please the detective to keep on the ministrations that would drive her crazy. There was no way that she would wait any longer. Not now. Not that night. She desperately needed to feel the tension leave her body as her orgasm would hit her after long minutes of agony.

"What do you want?"

What if she hadn't rolled a double six? What if nobody had got one that evening? A lonely, cold night of February. Where would she be, now? Certainly not in Jane's bed, getting pleasure in the anonymity of a hot summer night.

"You."

The reply elicited a bright smile on her lips and she let the brunette pass on top of her; succumbing to a passionate kiss.

Nobody knew and so what? There was something enticing in the idea of being friends with benefits.


	2. Chapter 2

**Jane**

There had been Catherine. Catherine O'Donnell. Short blond hair, blue eyes. Nothing had happened yet she had felt something; something different. Some sort of attraction that retrospectively, she assumed rather well. Yet it was so far from what was going on with Maura.

Quietly, Jane turned her head around to observe the medical examiner. Eyes closed, the honey blonde was enjoying the sun in her deckchair; wearing a bikini that didn't leave much to the imagination.

It was a hot Sunday in the city. They weren't on call but had decided to stay at Maura's. The patio was quite a nice privilege to have on Beacon Hill, especially in the summer. The only thing missing being a swimming-pool, obviously.

"Why are you staring at me?"

The question not only made Jane jump but blush as well. In other circumstances, she would have lost herself in a sarcastic reply for hating to be caught but with Maura, the game they had developed for the last months very often won in the end. Just like now.

"Sweat drops."

Bingo. The blonde opened her eyes and perplexed, frowned at her friend. She was wearing a large hat; the straw reflecting in shadows on her skin. Somehow, she looked like an actress of an another time.

"Excuse me?"

In a fluid movement, Jane abandoned her deckchair only to kneel down near Maura's. Without saying a word, her index traced a path from the blonde's neck to her breasts; stopping between them, drawing a series of circles there.

The gesture elicited a smile from the medical examiner but putting her Chanel sunglasses on, she just settled back in the deckchair and didn't move an inch.

"In the middle of the afternoon, Jane? Really?"

It all had started with a bet that she had lost. Truth to be told, she didn't even remember how they had come to challenge each other on such singular conclusion. They had drunk – perhaps a tad more than the usual – but still, they had always known what they were doing. And she hadn't stopped Maura as the dices had got the double six out.

Worse. What was supposed to be a one-night stand had turned into a regular event. Because of her. One night, she had simply grabbed her friend's wrist and decided to repeat it. Then again, and again. Every single time with more passion and the latent feeling they just needed it to go on.

To go on and survive.

"And since when this is a problem?"

Without any warning, Maura grabbed Jane's hand to make it rest at a more strategical point: right there, between her legs. Then, in what looked like the most complete indifference, she shrugged and kept on enjoying the sun as if nothing had happened.

"It certainly isn't one."

The sky was blue – without a single cloud – while the murmur of a car passing in the street from time to time echoed the birds singing in the trees around. The breeze coming from the ocean was hot but in some way relaxing and comforting. Arousing.

…

**Maura**

It might have sounded stupid but she hadn't got prepared for it when she had started her career. At no moment in medical school, someone had told her about it. Perhaps it was her fault in the end because when she thought about it, it was logical. Like anyone, she had watched the news on television. Like millions of Americans, she had seen how the cams followed every single person who worked on a crime scene. From police officers to the medical examiner.

Thus, it was only fair that she had ended up getting media coverage.

Nobody followed her at her place – or at least not that she thought so. Journalists only stuck to crime scenes, to her professional field.

Yet they knew her. They had her name, probably even her phone number and maybe a couple of other details about her. After all, they had even ended up giving her a nickname: Queen of the Dead. Deep inside, she didn't like it much. Yet all in all, it meant there was some sort of recognition about her job. She just didn't see herself wandering through a labyrinthic morgue; floating over the Styx, scalpel in hand.

Without a single gaze for the cams and even less for the journalists asking her questions about the case, Maura made her way through the crowd of media to pass under the yellow police tape. Jane had arrived and was now talking with Korsak.

She had hoped for a quiet Monday after the lustful weekend she had had. As she saw the blood on the asphalt, she accepted – reluctantly enough – that reality had decided to turn different that time.

"Stabbed twice in the abdomen, in parallel lines. The throat is cut."

Slowly, she approached the victim and knelt down by her side. Another red-haired one in her twenties. Jane imitated her gesture before resting her hand on Maura's thigh.

These touches were not accidental or at least they had ceased to be for quite a while, now. As much as there was something incongruous in the idea of playing a flirty game on a crime scene, the scientist had to recognize that it was arousing. Probably the taste of forbidden things...

The detective let her fingertip draw an invisible circle on her hip before focusing back on the victim. As if it was all fine. As if she hadn't done much, in the end.

"It's the third one..."

Her gestures were now on an automatic mode; her eyes scanning the scene quickly, professionally. She wasn't allowed to miss the single detail or else the case could take a wrong direction that she would be responsible for. Once she would give her authorization to take the body to the morgue, she wouldn't be able to go backwards and ask for a second chance. Being a medical examiner required nerves.

Yet she was used to it enough to play along Jane's game.

Turning her head around to look at her friend, Maura passed her tongue over her lips – slowly – before biting the lower one. If there was something that she had learned since they had started sleeping together, it was the way they both enjoyed challenges.

The brunette might have started it this time, that didn't mean that she would end up winning.

"You know that, as much as there are similarities with previous victims, I don't give into guesses."

Smiling, Maura stood up and looked around. Satisfied. Perhaps Jane liked initiating the flirting, it did not change the fact that most of the times, it was the honey blonde who reversed the rules to make them hers and take control of the situation. What could she say? She had always had a leader mind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Maura**

She opened the door of her house, made two steps and counted until three. As she felt her hands on her waist, a smile appeared on her lips. At times, they were both too predictable; like an old couple except they were deprived of all the negative points of a relationship as defined by most of people.

Perhaps it was just how human beings worked. Comforted by a routine, they slowly gave up the idea of surprises only to enjoy old habits.

Jane made her turn around – grabbed her hands to lift her arms – then pinned her against the wall of the entrance in her back.

Of course, the honey blonde hadn't bothered to turn the lights on. What for? She liked it in the dark, in this half-obscurity that seemed to slide on the flesh like burning caresses; highlighting a chest that kept on rising and falling, an arched back.

As the brunette's hand traveled on her thigh, Maura lifted her leg up to suggestively caress Jane's waist. She closed her eyes as soon as she felt her friend's lips on her neck; the light brush of the tongue on her sensitive skin.

This gesture had always driven her crazy and the detective knew it. The softness of lips opposed to the eliciting touch of a tongue.

Jane passed her hand under the fabric of her dress, slowly going up; playing around as she used to.

She liked getting the medical examiner to a point of no-return, when even a plea couldn't pass her lips for her being too close to her orgasm. A pure torture that always ended up in an explosion of feelings and a long moment during which Maura didn't know anything anymore for being at the mercy of her whole shaking body.

Even before they headed to the movies, the honey blonde had known what would happen next; once they would go back to her place. The most random subject would be enough to make it work.

Following a scenario they played to perfection, they would bicker. Over and over. Then to the words would get add a couple of exchanged gazes before they finally touched each other with this so-called innocence they knew was anything but that. And when they found themselves in private, the rest would turn out pretty clear.

Sex was always a great release.

Did she like it rough? At times. It depended on her mood, on the circumstances. That night might have been one of these days, actually. Because when Jane didn't lose her time with the line of her black silk underwear and went straight to where it ached the most, Maura bit her lower lip then pushed herself towards her friend in an implicit invitation.

Bickering was a kind of foreplay. _Their_ kind of foreplay. Little by little, it made the excitation grow wilder; making them win time before they fond a secure place to go further.

Jane's lips reached her lowercut. Slowly, with a meticulousness that showed how much the brunette did like being – at times – in control of the situation. The temperatures had still not fallen back down and the specialists had now made it clear: Boston was suffering from a scorching heat.

Even her light dress was too much to wear in the evening. She was literally burning.

"Oh, come on... Maur'... Not already..."

The scientist smirked at the remark but didn't say a word and tried to focus on making it last. They had not even kissed. As soon as they had passed the door, they had simply gone at it. And there she was; on the verge of letting go of everything.

As if to make it even more complicated, Jane sped up the pace of her ministration; abandoning the slow brushing of Maura's sensitive spot for something more direct and effective. The blonde swallowed hard and dug her nails in her friend's back.

A shiver ran down her spine. She arched her back, leaned her head backwards; moaned as she felt the inevitable build in her lower stomach.

There. In the quietness of her house plunged in the dark.

…

**Jane**

"_Then go with Doctor Isles!"_

As she quickly scanned the room, Jane thought about her colleague's words when they had assumed it had turned necessary to investigate Boston underground society after the three murders that seemed to be linked to each other.

The loft had a nice surface and overlooked the city breathtakingly. Or at least she thought so because the dark – heavy – curtains blocked the view and the electro music accompanying a complicated net of multicolored lights that covered the sound of some sort of documentary aired on immense screens didn't help her focus the slightest bit. A few sculptures – or installations as the honey blonde liked calling them – had been haphazardly abandoned around as well.

Contemporary art. She made a face. She wasn't in her element the slightest bit.

Restraining her urge to turn around and leave, the brunette focused on the reason why she was there but a look on her left and she realized that Maura had already abandoned her to go and contemplate the biggest sculpture ever; some sort of plastic forks assembled to form a church.

Hesitantly, the detective decided to make a few steps towards what looked like a giant pile of plates, lit up by bright pink spotlights. Perplexed, she remained still before it; wondering if the three victims had not just decided to put an end to their life after having attended such kind of an art exhibition.

"What do you think about it?"

The voice had sounded warm; low and confident. Without breaking eye-contact with the sculpture, Jane shrugged.

"I have the same at home... By the kitchen sink."

Her interlocutor laughed. Turning around to look at him, the brunette found herself facing a tall man in his thirties, with deep green eyes and a charming smile. Way too charming. She opened her mouth to add something but suddenly felt a hand on her lower back. Nothing incongruous. Nothing possessive.

Except for the light touch of a fingertip brushing her buttocks.

Nothing accidental. Everything so controlled.

"Doctor Isles. Doctor Maura Isles..."

The honey blonde tended her hand to the man, which made Jane realize that she didn't know anything about him; not even his name.

"Charlie. Charlie Banter."

As the scientist was shaking Charlie's hand, Jane looked back at the sculpture; the small label with the name of the artist on it.

"_Charlie Banter – Boston, 2011"_

Amused - not at all embarrassed - she smiled brightly and looked up at him; unaware of Maura's insistent gaze on them both as their eyes connected for long, quiet seconds.


	4. Chapter 4

**Maura**

With an almost professional meticulousness, she picked up her California roll with her sticks - plunged her eyes in Jane's – and slowly ate her sushi; almost suggestively as a mischievous smile played on her lips.

"Go on a date with him."

The brunette's reaction came up immediately. Sighing loudly, she rolled her eyes before biting with a barely controlled anger in her very own Japanese piece. In the morning, she had received a parcel from Charlie Banter at the BPD: a plastic plate with a personal message from the artist on it.

He wanted to see her again.

Delighted, Maura took a sip of her green tea then cast a satisfied glance around. The restaurant wasn't as crowded as it used to. Before the Boston scorching heat, people seemed to have taken quite drastic measures: a few days off and they had left the city for cooler places by the coast. Unfortunately for her, working at the BPD made it hard to follow the same scheme.

"I don't know..."

Maura smiled.

She liked that Jane. The one who suddenly appeared a lot less confident than the person she showed in public. Actually when it came to men, it was always the same story.

As much as they had never properly defined their very own relationship, it was obvious that they were friends with benefits. It had taken a while before one of them went on a date after they had started their secret encounters, actually. Jane had been the first one and if for a few seconds Maura hadn't known what to say or think about it, she had quickly found her advantages in it.

And one more way to play it seductively.

"Come on... Why saying no to a free meal, some good wine and nice music? Then he'll bring you back to your place..."

Jane couldn't help but smile. Of course she knew where her friend was heading to. It was not the first time.

Maura picked another California roll but instead of eating it immediately, she passed her tongue over it as the Japanese piece brushed her lips. She noticed the change in the brunette's eyes; a darker tone that she had learned to recognize and interpret.

The quiet sign that her plan was working out perfectly.

"You won't make it to your bedroom. No time to waste. Instead, you will both let yourself fall on the couch and he will start sucking on your neck."

The blonde's voice was low yet intense enough to have a serious effect on Jane who began to swallow hard while she nervously played with her sticks.

"Slowly, his hand will travel up your hip and pass under the dress you will have put on for the occasion. Preferably a black one. Elegant yet discreet. Quietly, you will spread your legs – if only a little – in an implicit invitation to his hand and fingers and... Oh wait."

In a dramatic motion, Maura rolled her eyes and laughed lightly as if she had just realized something. With her Japanese stick, she pointed out at her friend.

"This isn't Charlie I'm talking about. This is me!"

Jane drowned her smirk in a sip of her beer; shrugged and shook her head at the medical examiner. Yes, Maura actually liked when her friend went on a date.

If only because she knew that it wouldn't work out.

…

**Jane**

One. Two. Three. Closing her eyes, the brunette let a sigh of frustration pass her lips before it floating in the emptiness of her apartment.

She had observed every single picture so many times that she could see them all in her sleep, now. The last detail had been engraved in her mind; from the schedule of their last days to the hours when their bodies had been found.

Yet the main piece of the puzzle was still missing and it went on her nerves.

Officially, the three victims weren't linked. But it was only a matter of time before they would have to say the opposite and she knew way too well the direction things would take, then. A serial killer attracted the media and the mass of viewers, the ones glued to their television screen. While a sentiment of paranoia would spread over the city, the BPD would receive all kind of calls and pointless so-called witnesses.

A stressing countdown would be set off for the police that would be accused of incompetence for taking so much time in resolving the cases.

And as if it weren't enough, now her personal life decided to play the intruder as well.

Charlie Banter.

Would she really go on a date with an artist? As much as she had found him attractive, she had to say that they couldn't be more different. Besides with the case going on, the timing could hardly get worse.

Yet she hadn't thrown away the plastic plate he had sent her. In all honesty, she had liked the initiative. Its originality.

She was about to focus back on the case – the whole file literally spread on her coffee table – when the door suddenly opened. Bottle of beer in hand, she looked – perplexed – how Maura came in.

They had not planned to see each other that evening.

Without a word nor a gaze for the brunette, the medical examiner closed the door behind her and took off her shoes before heading towards Jane's bedroom; casually abandoning something on the floor at every step she made. Her bag, her shirt, her dress.

Her bra.

Astounded, the detective stared at the piece of clothing path traced as the honey blonde disappeared from her view, down the corridor that led to her bedroom.

Long seconds passed by – silent ones – during which she didn't move nor dare to say the slighted thing. The expression "unexpected visit" had never been taken that literally. Maura's voice finally pierced the silence and brought her back to reality.

"I didn't come to enjoy the sheet of your bed alone, Jane."

Now laughing frankly, the brunette stood up and headed straight to her room. The scientist was leafing through a magazine. On the bed. Completely naked.

Jane smiled brightly. Amused. As she approached the mattress and took her own clothes off, she thought about all the men who had dated and would date her friend. Maura knew how to break the routine of any relationship.

It was rare.

These guys were lucky.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's note: thank you very much for all the reviews. Keep them coming, I really appreciate them!**_

_**...**_

**Jane**

It was easy to see when something was wrong with her. All of a sudden, she stopped talking and sort of lost herself in her thoughts; locking the rest of the world outside. She had never really managed to go and pretend that she was alright when it wasn't true. So after a while, she had simply stopped trying to do that.

Digging her bare feet deeper in the warm sand, she leaned her chin against her knees and stared at the ocean in front of her. Quietly. Maura's presence by her side rather comforting.

It had been a particularly hot day in Boston and at the end of their shift, both friends had decided to go and head to the beach, if only to cool down a bit.

And there they were, now; sat on the sand, their eyes lost in the contemplation of the waves, how the sun got reflected on the glimmering water.

"What's happening?"

Maura's question didn't surprise her the slightest bit. Of course, the honey blonde had felt that she was not fine; that something bothered her and she didn't dare to say it out loud. She had never been good at making the first step. For absolutely anything. She lacked the real self-confidence that it required.

"Do you never regret the choices you make? Do you... Do you never regret your professional career?"

The medical examiner remained silent for long seconds as if she was deeply analyzing the question and looking for the best words to give a proper answer. A seagull passed far in the distance. Jane focused on it and frowned at the ridiculousness of her question. Of course, the honey blonde must grow tired of her job at times. Autopsies were far from being the easiest situation to handle around.

Medical examiners faced tough contexts, led a rough life. Jane hardly believed that none of them had ever felt like stopping it all for something brighter. Lighter.

"Usually a couple of days are enough for me to come back to the office enthusiastically..."

The brunette pondered her friend's words then sighed loudly. As they had arrived on the beach, she had tried and played along that old – recurring – seduction game if only to finish the day on a bright note. But it hadn't worked out. Not on Maura but on her. For the very first time, she wasn't in the mood for it. She needed to talk, to share more than a bed and a few kisses.

"Well, I do. Sometimes, I think that I must be crazy to do such a job. It's risky, and gloomy. Unhealthy. Not the best way to enjoy life properly. After a while, you see things differently. Probably because of all the things you got to face and deal with. So then I wonder if I shouldn't have gone to college and, you know, like embraced another career... But then..."

She stopped – looked at her feet – and frowned.

"But then that means I would have never got to meet you. And I'm not sure I'd like my life without you being a part of it."

Maura didn't say a word. From the corner of her eye, Jane saw her smiling peacefully while she was observing her. Then, slowly, the honey blonde passed her arm around her waist before leaning her head on her shoulder; planting a light kiss there.

They didn't move, didn't speak. Just stayed in each other's arms looking at the sunset until the moon replaced the sun and the beach got emptied.

...

**Maura**

She loved wearing stilettos. Not only for the design of the shoes but also because it turned a leg into the sexiest part of a body ever. It changed it all: the way of walking, the figure of the calf. People's gaze on you. There was something sexual about high heels. Something addicting.

And they made her feminine. Attractive.

"She lives like a nun. Yeah she went on dates, like a few times. But still. She's thirty-seven years-old, isn't married and has no kid. She lives in that big house, all alone."

Hiding behind the door left ajar, Maura listened in silence to a conversation she shouldn't have caught in the first place. A conversation about her, between two laboratory technicians. Being the boss meant facing this kind of situations and she didn't mind much. Yet every time, the image people had of her was far from reality.

Appearances were tricky. Unless it was her fault and the way people saw her was exactly what she used to show them, in the end.

"Perhaps she likes women."

The remark surprised her and made the other technician laugh loudly.

"I doubt so! I mean, look at her..."

She smiled. Satisfied, amused. Nobody had ever guessed anything about her. Her personal life seemed to remain mysteriously hidden, unknown. She liked it that way, actually. A few hints here and there but the main lines stayed blurry. Sure it only increased the gossip but there was something appealing in the idea of being secretive.

Who would ever assume that – five minutes earlier – she had been panting loud in her office; sat on her armchair, her legs spread to Jane's mischievous caresses? Trying to restrain the urge to let a moan pass her lips as the brunette's tongue was eliciting intense feelings throughout her whole body.

At the beginning, they had decided to keep it to the personal sphere. Nothing would happen on their workplace, not even the slightest gaze. They had hold it for ten days. Not even two weeks. Now sexual encounters in her office – in a bathroom – seemed to have turned into old habits.

Something burned on her lips. Absent-mindedly, she passed her fingertips on them. Jane's last kiss. She still could feel it, warm and eager. Sweet, passionate. For a furtive second, she closed her eyes and it all came back. The caresses, the sighs. That sensation to be boiling from the inside at every touch her lover had on her shivering skin. The release of hormones, powerful ones.

Swallowing hard – slightly aroused by the mere reminiscence of the taste of prohibited sex – she shook her head then opened her eyes back before knocking on the door.

As she entered the office, Maura faced the two technicians who seemed to have been caught in the middle of a very delicate operation. She restrained the desire to roll her eyes.

It was undeniable: women were much better at hiding things.


	6. Chapter 6

**Jane**

"The first time you met your lover, you stopped on: his eyes, his smile or his dance moves?"

For a few seconds, Jane remained still and looked at Maura without saying a word; unsure if she had to complain or laugh out loud. Pencil in hand, the honey blonde stared at the different questions of the test – laid on her back, naked – feet in the air.

"You weren't dancing when we met."

With a light gesture of the hand, she discarded a lock of blond hair from Maura's neck before planting kisses there. Her leg slid between her friend's. Warmly. The fluid movement suggestive enough.

The scientist giggled at the sudden reaction but didn't move; let her do instead with a fake indifference. After what had looked like another day of scorching heat, the sky had suddenly been invaded by a long trail of heavy – gray – clouds. And before they had time to react, the storm had enveloped Boston of an odd, tropical rain curtain.

The difference of temperature between the drops of water and the asphalt produced an odd smoke that seemed to appear from the depths of Earth; floating magically above the streets, releasing the singular smell of dust and rain.

"I might be getting old, I still remember the day we met. Eyes or smile, then?"

The sound of the rain rocked their lustful evening, its melody matching the rhythm of their caresses by the open window of Jane's bedroom. For the very first time in a long while, the air was cool; pleasant. The brunette's lips left the medical examiner's neck to follow a path down her back, her spine. Maura's warm skin was soft against the palm of her hands. Shivering at times as a kiss – the light brush of her tongue – elicited uncontrollable feelings.

"Smile..."

She hadn't filled in these ridiculous magazine tests since her adolescence when she locked herself in the bathroom to secretly read them; far from her brother's eyes and the laughs it would have got her if they had known about it. Not that Maura was usually addicted to these so-called psychological quizzes but right now, she seemed to find the right dose of entertainment in them.

"I will have to go with your eyes... Next... Choose the best word that describes your lover: passionate, caring or dominating?"

Soon, the trail of kisses led her to the medical examiner's buttocks. She loved their curves, the way her lower back arched under the slightest touch. She passed them – meticulously – and smirked as she felt her friend react in spite of the indifference the blonde desperately tried to show. Not only had she never been good at lying but naked and against Jane's own body, Maura's arousal couldn't be more evident.

The detective slid a hand on her friend's inner thigh, soon followed by her kisses. Now it was obvious: Maura would never make it to question three.

…

**Maura**

Soon, she left behind the children screaming – the murmurs of a guitar – and the noisy brouhaha of the beach. The warm water of the Atlantic was wrapping up her body in a comforting way, almost relieving when she thought about it. Everything seemed lighter, all of a sudden. More bearable.

She had been living in Boston for such a long time and yet she rarely went for a swim by the ocean. If it weren't for the current scorching heat, she would have probably stayed at home to read. Except the harbor, she rarely saw the sea; too busy as she was with her work at the BPD.

Yet right now, she didn't regret her last-minute choice the slightest bit.

The waters were calm enough and very easily, she took the direction of rocks a few feet further. Some physical activity would come in handy, if only to get rid of this suffocating feeling that had been on her shoulders since the morning. Holding her breath, she plunged in the water and stayed there for a while. Surrounded by nothing but the beats of her heart.

She reached the surface again then kept on swimming. A second date. Somehow, this wasn't the issue at all. Jane was in her right to see Charlie again. Besides – as her friend – she had even pushed her to do so. The case the brunette had been working on was stressful. She needed time outside; to laugh, to just enjoy life. Charlie Banter was a summer fling and just that. The detective didn't like art, Maura knew it. It was only a matter of time before they stopped seeing each other.

Yet he had taken her out of Boston for the weekend.

During forty-eight hours, she would spend her time thinking about her friend. Would she have sex with him? Would they laugh, kiss in front of a romantic sunset? Would they lose themselves in the odd – yet enticing – exhilaration of the beginning of a relationship? And during all that time, Maura would do nothing but face in all loneliness questions that would remain unanswered. As usual.

She reached the rocks and turned around to head back to the beach. Her movements were nervous now, responding to the storm of thoughts inhabiting her mind.

Then she thought about the night before, at her friend's apartment. The sound of the rain covering their sighs, their moans.

The magazine had been discarded very quickly as Jane had made her roll on her side before leaning on her back – a leg over hers – to control everything from behind.

Not that it usually turned out boring but the intensity of the position and of her feelings had reached a new peak. Jane's too, she knew it.

Because when her orgasm had spread over her body – her arm around the brunette's neck to bring her closer to her shoulder she had been kissing - she had felt her friend collapse against her, on her back. As breathless as she had been herself. They hadn't moved for long seconds afterward. They hadn't said the slightest word. Just remained like that – spooned – with their legs intertwined and their shivering bodies moving in unison to their short breath.

And now Jane was gone. With someone else.

One more time, Maura plunged under the water except when she emerged again, burning tears had all of a sudden joined the water drops falling down her face. She hated it, all that. Every time it happened - every time Jane went on a date that would take her to the next step - she had the sensation to be left aside.

Not necessarily as relieved as planned, she reached her towel and laid down on it then closed her eyes. She was stressed, and tired. All she needed was a nice day of rest; thinking about nothing at all. But a voice broke – a few inches from her face – and as she opened back her eyes, she postponed all the rest.

"Nice specimen of a Polyplacophoran."


	7. Chapter 7

_**Author's note: thank you very much for the reviews, I really appreciate them. Also, don't be worried. I put this story in the "romance" category so at some point - somehow - we will get there; after a few up and down probably!**_

_**...**_

**Maura**

The glass brushed her lips and as the alcohol burnt her throat, she closed her eyes to focus on the very unique sensation brought by the vodka. A hand on the counter, she turned around then scanned with an obvious difficulty the room that was plunged in the dark. The music was loud – bumping in her chest – but she felt fine, there. Lost among a crowd of strangers who barely looked at her. Sometimes, it was all she needed in the end: a couple of hours in the anonymity of a night club. Then she came back to her life with the required energy to face all these elements that constituted her daily routine.

All of a sudden, her eyes stopped. By the dance floor, a few feet away from the bathroom door. She would have recognized the long and curvy hair anywhere even in the most complete darkness. A few spotlights embraced the dark locks at a regular pace, of many different colors. A few seconds more and Maura realized that Jane was talking to someone.

A woman in her thirties with a way too charming smile.

Without thinking it twice, the honey blonde stood up – abandoned her Martini – and headed straight to the dance floor. Under other circumstances, she would have broken into some moves and tried to get her friend to dance along with her but not this time. She wasn't in the mood to play around.

The woman was about to brush Jane's forearm seductively when the medical examiner arrived, grabbed the brunette by the arm to make her turn around. Surprised, the detective didn't say a word and almost stumbled backwards as Maura captured her lips in a rough – rather possessive – kiss.

It was only once she began to lack air that the blonde broke apart. She forced a smile to the woman in front of them who hadn't moved an inch – probably too surprised by the unexpected gesture – then turned around before going back to the counter to empty her glass.

How many of them did Jane need, exactly? She had come back from her weekend with Charlie only a couple of days earlier; a quiet smile embracing her lips. Not that it had bothered her the least to spend the following night at Maura's but now she felt the urge to go for a third person?

"What was that? This isn't even a gay club."

Shrugging away the question, the honey blonde bit her lower lip and began to draw circles on the palm of her friend's hand who had just come back to her stool; slightly taken aback by the last scene.

Slowly, she turned her head around and plunged her eyes into Jane's dark ones before mouthing in a complete silence.

"I. Want. You."

The detective laughed. Maura had enough experience now to know that playing this kind of game was safe with her friend. As a matter of fact, Jane seemed to appreciate it – all this possessiveness she was not supposed to express. It reassured her, comforted her in the idea that someone cared about her.

In an echo of the scientist's previous gesture, the detective moved her lips in silence; never breaking eye-contact with Maura.

"Where?"

The honey blonde smiled brightly, looked around. Satisfied and full of a quiet self-confidence. At least that evening – no mattered the crowd – Jane would leave with her and just her. One more time.

…

**Jane**

His name was Craig and he worked as an entomologist for the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It was all she knew, all she had managed to get from Maura as she had arrived at the scientist's place just after her weekend spent out of town.

"We met at the beach and bonded over a Polyplacophoran."

Grabbing an olive, the brunette frowned; shook her head. She hadn't missed her friend's smile all day long yet it had taken her more than ten hours to figure out its exact reason.

A man. Maura had met a man.

"A what?"

The honey blonde turned around – picked a slice of bread with _tapenade_ on it – and leaned against the kitchen counter. She was starving, slightly exhausted by a long day at work but delighted to spend the rest of the evening with Jane; for obvious, pleasurable reasons.

"It is a seashell."

Unimpressed, the detective nodded but didn't add anything. As a matter of fact, the whole situation had slightly taken her aback. Not that her friend wasn't in her right to meet someone else than her but it had not happened in such a long time that selfishly enough, she had assumed that it would always be that way. Maura's dates turned out disastrous. Every single time.

She just hadn't expected that kind of news after a weekend with Charlie out of Boston. What about their routine if all of a sudden, the honey blonde started dating someone? What about... What about all these references they had made theirs?

"Do you plan on seeing him again?"

She had tried to sound casual and hoped the effect had turned alright; not with a note of slight despair in her voice before the possibility of the downfall of their current, odd yet addicting, relation.

Maura shrugged then plunged her index finger in the _tapenade._

"I don't know..."

As the olive-wrapped finger brushed her lips, Jane smiled brightly and opened her mouth to welcome it. Slowly – her eyes plunged in her friend's – her tongue rolled around it before sucking and licking the green dish off it; locking most of the finger in her mouth, behind her closed, moist lips.

She didn't let go of it immediately. Instead, she enjoyed the warmth of Maura's finger in her mouth; its softness against her tongue. She had never been into the sexual side of food but she had to recognize that the gesture was arousing.

Then – slowly – she let it slide out, inch after inch.

"Dinner will be ready in... What, twenty minutes?"

Amused, Maura nodded. And it was all Jane needed to grab her friend's wrist before leading her to the couch; already lost in a thousand kisses.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's note: thank you again for all the reviews!**_

_**...**_

**Maura**

She closed her eyes and focused on her other senses; the smell of sunscreen, the noises surrounding her and the warmth of the sun on her skin. Jane's fingers brushing her as the brunette unclasped the top of her small bikini.

That last sensation elicited a quiet – yet obvious – smile on her lips.

Slowly, the detective's hands began to caress her back; following an invisible drawing all over the skin. Playing softly with the fabric of the bikini bottom as the fingertips reached her lower back before going back up to lose themselves in the depths of her neck. Most of people around wouldn't have noticed the slightest thing, seeing in the gesture the mere fact of a woman applying sunscreen on her friend's body. Yet Maura knew better. She didn't miss the furtive caresses – a finger brushing the side of her breast that made her shiver – or a lost caress on her thigh.

Succumbing to an old automatism, she slightly spread her legs. The movement made Jane laugh. They had reached this point where the mere gesture couldn't pass unnoticed to each other and belonged to a rather bare logic. There was no surprise anymore between the two of them. They knew each other by heart in a comforting, addicting way.

Suddenly, she felt Jane's body heat close to her back; the smell of her skin going up her nose.

"I'm not sure the families around us would appreciate much what you have in mind, Maur'."

Amused, the honey blonde shrugged before sighing loudly. Suggestive allusions and constant teasing would do the trick until the evening. She was fine with it. There were many more ways to enjoy a day at the beach with Jane. The whole weekend, actually.

When Jane had suggested that they could leave Boston for the end of the week, Maura hadn't bothered restraining her enthusiasm about the idea.

To make sure the destination would be different from the one the brunette had been to with Charlie, she had arranged the getaway and all of a sudden, her routine had seemed lighter; more bearable.

She had always hated working during the summer but for the first time and before the perspective of leaving for a couple of days, everything had turned perfect. Smooth.

And there they were, now. Enjoying the beach of Salisbury on a hot Saturday.

In another subtle caress, Jane clasped back her friend's bikini top then settled on her side in silence. A smirk on her lips, Maura opened her eyes: looked at her.

"That was quick. Hopefully tonight you won't be in such a hurry."

She had rented a small wooden house by the beach; with sand on the floor and the smell of the ocean invading every room while the sun flooded in all day long. The perfect retreat for a few days far from their stressful Boston life and cases that seemed to have got stuck in dead-end paths.

She knew it bothered Jane – stole her sleep – and made her tensed. Now a fourth victim had been found they had had no choice but to make an official statement and the news about a serial killer were now all over the place; playing with time and people's mind. Not the peaceful summer one could dream about.

"Can we just call in sick on Monday and stay here for the rest of our life?"

_Our. _The use of the adjective didn't pass unnoticed to Maura and she couldn't help but smile. Had Jane said that to Charlie when they had left Boston too, a week earlier? She doubted so. As usual, her friend had refused to say much about the weekend she had spent out of town with the artist which in a weird way comforted the scientist in the idea that the detective's date was purely a mere fling.

And nothing more.

Of course, she knew that one day it would change. That Jane would should up and announce that she had found the right one. Then everything would fall down – all that – and their relation would belong to the past. But for the moment, Maura preferred to ignore it. Innocently, perhaps, but still. She was in her right to play along the one who was blind.

"Of course, you know that you could regret this desire of yours to have me make it last, right?"

The blonde laughed lightly, in silence. Relaxed, she dug her hand in the warm sand before plunging her eyes in her friend's dark ones. She rarely stared at people, rarely looked at them with this intensity she used with Jane. The difference was that with her, it came naturally. And she didn't feel nervous to do it.

Without saying a word, Jane slowly imitated Maura's gesture except her hand went further ahead until it made contact with her friend's. In a subtle movement, she rested her index finger over the blonde's, remained still in a sort of invisible embrace over their respective bodies.

…

**Jane**

She wasn't used of these small towns where everyone seemed to know each other and nobody locked the door of their car nor their house. For the cosmopolitan woman she was, such a friendly atmosphere was suspicious. Yet comforting, relaxing.

Carried away by the perfection of the moment, her joy had overtaken her but she couldn't care less. She hadn't spent such a good time for a very long while. And she was glad to share it with Maura.

"Oh my god... Blueberry pie. Come on, we have to try that one."

Charmed by her friend's sudden almost childish enthusiasm, the medical examiner laughed light then obliged; following the brunette to the homemade pie stand.

After a long day at the beach, they had gone for a walk by the pier where some sort of local, summer fair was taking place.

"We haven't had dinner yet..."

Jane rolled her eyes – a bright smile embracing her lips.

"Who said dinner couldn't start by dessert?"

Maura remained quiet, a large smile replacing her words. Within a few minutes, they were back on the evening stroll by the beach; devouring their respective slices of blueberry pie.

They had just passed an old house when – without any warning, without really knowing why – Jane's right hand brushed her friend's left one. Her fingers slid along the palm. Unexpectedly. Softly. Before settling there with a delicate firmness.

They never held hands in public. As a matter of fact, it didn't even cross their mind. At the same time, they were not supposed to do so, anyway; or at least not really. But there was something different suddenly; unless it had to do with the distance from Boston and the sentiment of comfort that emanated from the little town.

Maura caressed her hand with her thumb in a welcoming gesture.

None of them talked nor looked at each other. Instead, they kept on staring intently in front of them; a shy smile on their lips. And that odd, funny sensation in their lower stomach that made them so happy.

A slight vibration in the pocket of her pants got the brunette out of her quiet day dreams. She grabbed her cell phone and checked the caller ID. It was Charlie.

"Who is it?"

Instead of pressing the green button, she replaced the item in her pocket and kept on walking; then shrugged at Maura's question.

"Nobody important... It can wait."

Then without adding a word, she held her friend's hand tightly.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's note: thank you for the reviews... I really appreciate them so feel free to let me know how you feel about it. At times, it can even help me to add a few elements here and there.**_

_**...**_

**Jane**

When she had seen the building, she had turned around – perplexed – to look at Maura for any kind of explanation whatsoever. She knew the area and how most of the apartments there were lofts that artists had converted a long time ago. If the honey blonde had invited her to another underground party, it was a dead-end plan. Even Charlie didn't insist on that point, knowing beforehand that she didn't like it. But without saying a word – an amused smile on her lips – the scientist had simply grabbed her hand to go up the floors until they had reached a very last door.

Maura opened it and made a few steps in, revealing one of the most hidden secrets of Boston. The whole roof had been transformed into an urban garden; with alleys of plants, flowers and trees. Little lights all along the paths while other skyscrapers surrounded it of their neon in the night.

A light breeze embraced Jane's neck as she approached her friend. The view was breathtaking and let her completely speechless. Somewhere in front of her, she could see the lights of the harbor, between the multitude of other buildings plunged in the semi-darkness of the night. An odd sensation wrapped her up. Suddenly, without any warning. A dizzy lightness as if she were now walking on the roof of the world and felt so light; so fine.

"A friend of mine owns an apartment in the building. I borrowed him the key for the evening..."

Slowly, Jane turned around only to find Maura sat on an ensemble of mattresses that reminded her of all these pictures she had seen of Morocco; these places where people sat down for a drink between a mountain of pillows, in the shadows of a strong sun. The honey blonde was smiling brightly, obviously delighted by the effect of her surprise.

"It's probably one of the most beautiful places in Boston I've been to."

They were in the heart of the city but the heights wrapped them up in a protective way; the sound of the traffic reduced to a murmur, a peaceful one. And nobody to see them between the plants, the trees. Just the perfect place that only Maura could find.

Without saying a word, the medical examiner took her shoes off and plunging her eyes in her dark ones she settled further on the mattress. Suggestively enough for Jane to understand the invitation.

"Have you ever taken someone else here?"

As the question made it in the air, the detective realized how inappropriate it had sounded; an ounce of envy in her voice. She sat next to Maura, grabbed her hand to caress it absentmindedly.

"No."

Ridiculously enough, the frank answer relieved her and as the blonde captured her lips in a deep kiss, she couldn't help but smile. Almost proudly.

That evening, Jane shivered under Maura's soft touches with an intensity she had rarely experienced in the past; carried away by the uniqueness of the place they had landed in. The darkness of the night – the city lights all around – and the whisper of the cars a few feet below. They had already had sex outside, if only in her friend's patio. But there, it was something else; some sort of freedom and a matter of space.

The heat of the honey blonde's lips on her skin. The hands sliding through burning caresses, waking up the mere inch of her body. The fluidity of Maura's own flesh against her; sweet, hot and addicting. She held her tight long after the exhilaration of her feelings decreased. Just to feel her, silently hoping part of friend's soul would pass underneath her skin to rest there for the eternity.

Because it was where Maura belonged. How she – Jane – felt happy and complete.

…

**Maura**

She sighed loudly; her fingers tapping a nervous melody on her desk. She wasn't pissed but perhaps a tad annoyed for an absolutely unfair reason and that was the problem. After ten days out of Boston, he was back to the city and of course, wanted to see Jane.

Charlie. Charlie Banter.

As much as she knew that it wasn't reasonable, the honey blonde couldn't help it. There was nothing to be afraid of, it was a mere fling. As a matter of fact, she had even found out – by accident, during their weekend in Salisbury – that Jane hadn't taken his call immediately when he had tried to reach her. Yet the oppressive sensation of jealousy was there, weighing atrociously on her shoulders.

She didn't like him.

"Fine."

Talking to nobody in particular but herself – after all, she was alone in her office – she grabbed her cell phone and composed a message. Trying to not think too much about it – knowing that if she did, she would end up deleting it – she pressed the button as soon as she had formulated her request then stared at the screen for long seconds. She was tired of feeling left aside when people didn't do anything wrong around her in the end. So for once, she would get over this delicate sensation and make the first step.

Craig was nice. He hadn't pressed her in any way to get this first date. He deserved to get a chance.

She was about to put back her phone on her desk to focus on the files opened in front of her when it vibrated; making her jump of surprise.

"_Busy?"_

Immediately, a mischievous smile embraced her lips. Settling further on her armchair, Maura checked around to make sure that nobody was coming then feverishly formulated a reply.

"_I'm all yours..."_

The first time Jane had sent her a suggestive text message, she had been surprised; slightly taken aback by the sudden boldness of her friend who usually tended to be a lot less daring. Yet she hadn't back off but played along to the point of getting highly aroused by the sexting conversation they had shared.

Now it was part of their routine, something they both enjoyed from time to time. Especially at the BPD for it sounding attractively prohibited.

"_Going up your leg slowly with my tongue."_

Maura swallowed hard and moved uncomfortably on her chair. She stood up – went to lock the door – then sat back at her desk.

"_Where are your hands?"_

She assimilated it to a drug. All that, all this odd relation she had with Jane. The more she got from it, the more she wanted. The more she needed.

"_On your breasts... Your nipples are hard, I know it."_

A last glance at the shutters that were down and reassured enough, she let her hand slide under her dress to reach between her legs. Taking a deep breath as the first touch elicited a well-known sensation of a relieving warmth, she bit her lower lip.

"_Don't even think about stopping now."_


	10. Chapter 10

**Maura**

The politeness of her smile went from Craig to Charlie before melting into something a lot more daring as she stopped on Jane who was sat in front of her. Slowly, she approached her foot from the brunette's and began to caress her ankle under the table.

She had been the one who had suggested the double date, if only to show everyone – starting with herself – that she was fine. Reluctantly, Jane had nonetheless accepted and there they were, now; the four of them enjoying a dinner at a hype, French restaurant of Boston.

The detective stiffened slightly under the unexpected touch but as she plunged her dark eyes into her friend's ones, she relaxed; played along.

Truth to be told, Maura was bored. Charlie and Craig were adorable men but terribly random in the end. Good-looking, attentive and smart. Yet insipid.

There was no sparkle altogether; neither for Jane or her.

"Would you like some more wine?"

Nodding in silence, the honey blonde tended her glass at her date before focusing back on Jane on the other side of the table. If the dinner was boring, at least there was still a way to have fun; all in subtlety.

Without making the slightest noise, Maura took her stiletto off and began to run her toes along Jane's leg. Softly, eliciting the same shivering feelings as if she had run a feather on her friend's skin. There was something arousing in the gesture; perhaps the sentiment of doing something prohibited, hidden. Against all expectations, they had never really given into this kind of foreplay before; or at least not under such circumstances.

The taste of first times was appealing.

"I was thinking about taking Jane out there, yes. The place looks amazing..."

All of a sudden, Maura turned her head around and stared at Charlie; almost in disbelief. She had not paid attention to the conversation both men had been sharing – had they even realized that neither her nor her friend had been talking, all that time? - but the mention of the detective's name had just caught her attention. He was making plans. Charlie was making plans.

He was making plans with the woman whose knee was now brushing Maura's inner leg suggestively.

The blonde swallowed hard, aroused by the game of foreplay she had initiated and irritated by the talk going on next to her. She couldn't stand it. Jane and Charlie weren't a couple. They had barely shared a weekend and a few dates. What kind of adults dared to make plans out of such a poor semblance of relation?

She took a deep breath and focused back on the brunette who didn't seem bothered at all by the fact her very own date had included her in long-term plans. Unless she just hadn't really paid attention, too busy by the ministrations she was giving under the table.

Smirking, Maura passed her tongue over her lips – brushed the edge of her glass of wine with her fingertips – before biting her lower lip in a way she hoped highly suggestive and arousing enough. If it weren't for the game they were now both playing, the medical examiner should have recognized that she was experiencing one of her worst dates ever.

Jane smiled quietly, a hand on her lowcut. Maura winked. Her friend wouldn't go back home alone, that night. Yet it wouldn't be with Charlie.

…

**Jane**

Breathless, Jane broke their kiss and leaned against Maura's forehead; a bright smile playing on her lips echoing her friend's one. It hadn't been complicated to get rid of Craig and Charlie. It hadn't taken too long either for both women finding themselves panting against the wall of her apartment where she had not even bothered to turn the lights on as they had entered.

"Come with me."

The honey blonde's hoarse – lustful – voice turned her on even more and without a word, she accepted her friend's hand that led them to her bedroom.

The streetlight pierced through the window, sliding on the hardwood floor; following a silver path of delicate, pale light. Soon, she felt Maura's lips devouring her neck – her shoulders – as her hands were already unzipping her black dress. The piece of clothing brushed her body in an echo of the blonde's caresses. She stepped out of it, got lost in another deep – eager – kiss.

Their sighs resounded loud in the silence of the night; in the darkness of the room. The precipitation of their gestures matching the fast beating of their hearts; the depths of their lustful kisses. Soon, Jane let herself fall on the mattress, Maura's body on top of her; her hands and lips everywhere on her skin. She restrained a moan, arched her back.

She would have never assumed that the foreplay they had lost themselves in at the restaurant would get her that much aroused but the truth was that she was already panting hard while her friend's gestures had not yet reached the delicious boldness that usually drove her crazy.

"Maur'..."

She swallowed hard – tried to take a deep breath – but as she felt the scientist laugh against her inner thigh, she rolled her eyes in abdication. She had lost any kind of orientation in the dark with Maura's body over hers; her lips, tongue and hands wandering around on her shivering flesh.

Her friend's presence at such a strategical level of her body had taken her by surprise. She hadn't really expected her to be already there; heading slowly but surely between her legs.

"You want me to stop? Fine."

She groaned – obviously reacting to Maura's falsely innocent question – and without adding a word, she passed her hand through the honey blonde's hair to pull her closer to her body; abandoning herself to the tantalizing caresses; her foot slowly sliding on her friend's bare back as if to accompany the pace of the ministrations.

She forgot everything: her job, the victims, Charlie. Under the invisible curves traced by the honey blonde's tongue on her sensitive flesh, Jane lost any kind of reference; let it go completely.

If she had always had a hard time focusing on the time being, Maura was the only person who managed to make her relax and lose the grip so easily.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Author's note: thank you very much for the reviews, keep them up! Your suggestions might definitely get in here at some point, somewhere. So feel free to advance your ideas.**_

_**...**_

**Maura**

"You will never get married, am I right?"

The question took her completely aback and for long seconds, Maura remained still; staring blankly at her mother on the other side of the table.

As a matter of fact, the whole evening had been a surprise. At the last minute, she had had to cancel her plans with Jane for having received a call from Constance who was exceptionally in town and felt like having dinner with her. Of course, she had accepted. These occasions rarely happened. Too rarely.

She just hadn't imagined that her mother would throw herself in such conversation; right from the start.

Moving nervously on her chair, Maura frowned and grabbed her glass of wine to hide behind it. Maybe alcohol would be more than required, that evening.

"What do you mean?"

They had never been closed or at least not in the sense the honey blonde would have liked. Whenever she thought about it, the image that came to her mind was the one of Jane and Angela. She would have given anything to have the exact same relation with her mother. But it would never happen. She knew it.

"You think that I don't know you but this isn't true, Maura. You have always been different, even as a child. And now... Your professional choices, the life you chose to lead... You are thirty-seven years old. I know that you won't give into it. This isn't you, is it?"

The waiter arrived with their respective orders but as she looked down at her dish, the scientist realized that she wasn't hungry anymore. The rather intimate nature of the conversation troubled her too much.

"As a matter of fact, I have met someone. His name is Craig and he works as an entomologist for the Harvard..."

She didn't have time to finish her sentence. Her mother cut her immediately with this nuance of logic in her voice that had always driven Maura crazy; and slightly jealous. In spite of her constant efforts, she didn't have the same, natural skills that gave a certain weight to her speech.

"But like the previous ones, he won't stay very long. You won't give him time to do so. I... Do you like him?"

The question offended her, if only because it had hit that burning point she had desperately tried to just ignore. And without a second, Constance came in; destroying all the efforts she had put in the task.

"Excuse me? Does this mean I am the only one who should put back in question my dates?"

Her defensive tone didn't pass unnoticed and actually made her blush, slightly ashamed before the way she had reacted. In silent apologies, Maura looked down at her plate and began to eat. For long seconds none of them talked; the clinking of their silverware replacing their words.

Perhaps the snappy reply had taken Constance aback as well. If so – and in spite of the impolite way of expressing herself – then the honey blonde was satisfied. They had never alluded to her sentimental life so why starting now? Angry, Maura dared a look by the windows. Another hot day in Boston, the heat making the asphalt burn; embraced by an invisible veil of gas.

Then her mother's voice resounded loud.

"It is Jane, isn't it?"

…

**Jane**

"Do you have children?"

The detective silently shook her head at her interlocutor before focusing back on the toddler she had on her lap. She hadn't asked for anything. As a matter of fact, her visit was strictly professional but without knowing why nor how, she had suddenly been holding the twenty-five-month-old little girl while Frost had led the interview.

"Then you will obviously be a fantastic mother as soon as you decide to give it a try!"

Nobody had ever talked to her like that; with the logic of the genuine ones, who thought that life was defined the same way for everyone. As if maternity was as random as breathing, when it was not and Jane knew it.

The toddler grabbed her finger with this typical – unexpected – strength that babies owned and shook it vehemently. It made her laugh. Lightly, frankly.

"Melinda hadn't planned her pregnancy. It was an accident. But whenever she had Eva in her arms, she kept on saying that it had been a wake up call. Motherhood had stirred up her latent maternal feelings."

Shyly, Jane looked up at the woman sat in front of her. It was the third time they got to meet but until then, she hadn't had a chance to see the baby. The victim's baby. They had found Melinda's body a few weeks earlier in a backend street of downtown Boston. Fate hadn't been tender with the young mother. Even less for this child who would now grow up with the blurry memory of a woman she might have known at some point, for a brief time.

"Yeah... I don't know."

Rebecca – Melinda's sister – laughed lightly, genuinely. How could she be so strong while facing such a tragedy? This was something that had always let Jane speechless. The way people managed to move on and keep on living while something terrible had happened to their relatives. She would never really get used to it; no mattered the years, the experience. She was too fragile herself for it.

"She likes you. When it is your turn, enjoy every second of it. Because we don't know when it stops."

Ignoring the slight bitterness of Rebecca's words, the brunette plunged her eyes in Eva's big blue ones. Within a second, a thousand questions twirled around in her head – bumping into each other loudly – as she was getting lost in her deeper insecurities. She thought about Maura, about Charlie. About her family.

About babies.

"I suppose so..."

Did she really want a baby? Did she really want to have her very own family? And with whom... Too many questions that remained unanswered; too many doubts she always tried to ignore.

"I am sure that you will."

She smiled politely, absentmindedly. The only sure thing in all of this was that if she wanted a baby, it was now or never. And it made her panic.


	12. Chapter 12

**Jane**

Her kiss tasted of chlorine, the warmth of her lips contrasting excitedly with the coolness of the water drops that kept on falling down her face. As she felt the legs wrapped around her waist to hold her tight, Jane pushed her against the edge of the swimming-pool; a moan melting in a smile – dying in the kiss – when Maura's fingertips brushed her nape to untie her bikini top.

At times, the detective wondered about the exact nature of their relation. If the lines of friendship were getting blurry, the sexual addiction that seemed to emanate from them was troubling.

Lately, they had barely talked; barely exchanged the slightest conversation without it ending up in panting and sighs. It was odd. Relieving yet odd. Uncertain.

With an eager she could barely control, she abandoned her friend's lips to focus on her jaw; that jaw she knew by heart, now. How many times had she kissed it? Passed a hand on it? Slide her tongue over the sensitive skin? Maura's reaction turned out to be immediate: she arched her back, pushing against Jane in a silent plea.

For once, she had been the one bringing up a surprise, a secretly planned evening. After some research on the web, Jane had found a house to rent downtown Boston. A house with a swimming-pool. She had not thought about it twice and had booked it immediately for two days in a row; right in the middle of the week. For the long, hot summer nights the city was still having.

They had seen each other every evening, lately. Charlie was out of town again – preparing the opening of a gallery in Manhattan – and if she had had to be honest, his absence was relieving. Not that she did not want to see him but the conversation she had had with Rebecca while holding Eva in her arms had troubled her since then. She had tried to talk to Maura about it but the electricity between their bodies always ruined her attempt and before she had a chance to put words on her questions, she was lost in a path of kisses down her friend's chest.

Just like now.

They were the same age so they probably shared the same preoccupations, in the end. Did Maura want a child? They had alluded to it. Once. For five seconds. Then life had gone on and they had forgotten – or so – about it.

As a matter of fact, she didn't even know herself what she really wanted. All her life, she had assumed that she would have time for that; that it would come later. But the years had flown away and there she was, now. Back against the wall.

Was Charlie the right one? Was it time for her to finally settle down? And what about Maura? It always came back to her at some point, always. Whenever Jane tried to analyze her inner desires, the image of her friend showed up in some sort of annoying conclusion like an echo of her own doubts.

She needed to ask her; about everything. About life, about them, about Charlie. He was nice, patient and attentive. Yet so far from what she was. But what could she say? Opposes attracted. Maura was the perfect example to it.

Shaking her head, she focused back on the time being.

She liked the fluidity of the caresses under the water, how the world suddenly seemed sweetened; a lot slower as if to make them enjoy their touch even more, with attention.

The blonde's hot skin drove her crazy. The taste, its smell. The first time she had rolled on her side – in bed – and felt the scent of her friend on the sheet, it had troubled her. Like an oppressive ghost she wouldn't have known what to do with. Now it simply belonged to her references.

Her hand slid between Maura's legs. Lost in her neck, Jane felt her shiver – dig her nails in her back in this typical way of hers – and couldn't help but smile. She loved it. She loved everything about it.

…

**Maura**

She had pushed him away. Craig had tried to kiss her – with all the gentleness in the world – and she had pushed him away. Just like that; a hand up in the air to stop him immediately. It had let them both perplexed, embarrassed.

It was their fourth date. How many men were patient enough to wait this long, at their age? They were not teenagers anymore but full – grown up – adults. They could have even slept together after their first dinner out. After all, it would have been a lot closer to her usual habits.

Except right now, she couldn't do it.

In a mumble of apologies, she had hurried up inside of her house – letting him alone on the doorway – and climbed the steps to only stop once she had reached her bathroom. There – not really knowing why – she had let herself fall on the floor before staring blankly in front of her at an invisible point.

Her heart was beating loud and the tears hurt in her throat. But she didn't want to cry, didn't feel like to.

Something had happened since her dinner at the restaurant with her mother. A week and a half had only passed by since then and everything remained so clear in her head. Too clear.

"_You need to tell her."_

She had opened up to someone, for the very first time; about her confusion, all these doubts she didn't really manage to analyze. And then these words, Constance's so calm voice; as if it were just the most logical thing in the world.

When it wasn't.

Charlie had come back to Boston in the morning, putting an end to secret late night encounters a bit too abruptly. She didn't blame him. How could she? But deep inside, she was terrified by the idea that Jane would abandon her one day for him.

Her apprehension was ridiculous. After all, they had barely been dating for a month. The summer was in full swing; August being as hot and slow as July. Yet it was there, on her heart. That shameful feeling something bad would happen.

Obviously, she now could draw a line under Craig. She had barely given him a chance, anyway. What would happen, now? One more time, she would be the one without anybody by her side. Just like the others, Jane would get married and start a family. The detective didn't talk much about it but she didn't need to. It was obvious. She wanted it. And Maura would be left on the road – behind – catching a few people's attention from time to time.

More pity than anything else for the lonely and not so young anymore woman she was; surrounded by nothing but lifeless corpses.

The ringtone of her phone made her jump of surprise. Leaving her lethargy behind, she grabbed the cell and stared at the screen; perplexed, blank.

"_I miss you, tonight..._

_Jane"_

Confused – defeated – and scared, Maura didn't reply.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Author's note: thank you all for the reviews... To the "guest" who would like me to explore more their relation as a couple, I will do it in the next story that - now that I think about it - can, and so will be, the sequel to this one. **_

_**...**_

**Jane**

"Do you want children? Do you... Do you think, sometimes, about it?"

She had tried to formulate the question a thousand times in her head but never really satisfied, she had given up and let the words slide on her lips. With nervousness, uncertainty. As she looked up at Maura, Jane realized how she had taken her aback. It wasn't the right place, even less the right moment. And all of a sudden, she regretted to have dared.

Within three days, the detective would be on vacation; for two weeks. As usual, Maura had aligned her calendar, only asking for a couple of extra days. The medical examiner's own summer break had – thus – just started and they had both decided to celebrate it by going for a drink. The temperatures were still hot but a cool breeze pushed everyone outside in the evening. The bar was crowded.

Obviously uncomfortable, the honey blonde looked down at her cocktail then shrugged. Her eloquence had suddenly disappeared and as the seconds passed by, Jane faced nothing but a quiet veil of timidity.

"I don't know..."

Something hurt in the brunette's body; a latent pain near her heart, reflected on her throat. Perhaps the bitter taste of disappointment although she preferred to ignore it. Swallowing hard, she bit her lower lip and frowned.

"I am thinking about introducing Charlie to my parents."

If Maura had been passively shy until then, the revelation seemed to wake her up within a second. She looked up with a cold expression that slightly scared Jane.

"I didn't know it was that serious. You have barely been seeing each other for a month."

Truth to be told, Jane didn't know either. But deep inside, something told her that she had to. She had to make choices, to take some decisions. Unable to find a proper reply, she began to play nervously with her straw.

"How can you still sleep with me if you have feelings for him? How can you even share his bed and yet not feel guilty? It is with me you are going on vacations, not even him. And we both know that we will certainly not spend our time playing Scrabble..."

Maura's sudden aggressiveness took her aback. The scientist was in her right, as much as she ignored a couple of things starting with the fact that Jane had never slept with Charlie.

But instead of focusing on it, Jane just took a deep breath and asked what she had been wondering about for a long time already.

"What do you want from me? What are you expecting from me? I know that it all started as a bet but... Come on, we aren't stupid. What we are living is not normal. It's not... It's not friendship. I know it's... I know it's scaring but let's, at least, recognize it. What do you want from me?"

Maura's breath had turned short and loud, as if she were panicking; on the verge of crying. Her whole body was shaking uncontrollably. Yet she remained desperately quiet; completely still.

"It's now or never, Maur'. We're thirty-seven years old. And I don't want to wake up one day realizing I – we – have missed our chances... Perhaps you don't realize it but you have a lot in common with him; with Charlie. Just like him, you are my exact opposite. You complete me... I'm not good at this but if... If you want me... Then let's do this."

She couldn't stop the words coming through her lips, as if by daring to give in, she had unlocked a part of her that had been sentenced to silence for too long.

"And if I say no then you will go with Charlie? So this is what he is for you, a mere option? I am not sure that this is the best way to sentimentally succeed."

Jane frowned, trying to ignore the harshness highlighted by Maura's tone of voice. Counting until three in her head, she finally shrugged.

"It's either you or him, this is all what I know. I don't need to look for someone else. Yet you're the first one I ask. Because... Because you're the one. So what do you want from me?"

The crowd around them suddenly turned suffocating, loud. It made her feel dizzy. Long seconds passed by during which none of them talked. Jane was panicked while the honey blonde simply looked dead; as if her heart had quietly stopped beating, without any warning.

"I don't know..."

Was it the whisper – the sound of tears in her voice – or just the literal answer? Jane had no idea yet it hurt deep inside of her. Suddenly.

"We're supposed to leave in three days. If you don't show up at the airport by then, I will have got my answer. It's fine, that's life. It's just... I don't want to miss my chances. I can't... We can't afford to wait and see... All I know is that Charlie is ready for it. If you..."

The ring tone of her phone suddenly interrupted her. She cast a glance at the screen. It was Frost. Since she was on call that evening, she had no choice but to answer; no mattered the bad timing. As soon as she did, Maura's shaking hand slid a $50 bill on the table. Confused, Jane didn't move and looked at her go.

...

**Maura**

Her mouth was dry – her hands were still shaking – and as she got into her car, a wave of heat wrapped her up unexpectedly. For long seconds, Maura tried to calm down. She couldn't drive in such a state. As much as the tears didn't seem to feel like rolling out on her face, she was not able to focus on the road.

Why had Jane ruined everything? Could they just not pretend and keep on playing that game? It was a lot more reassuring, comforting. She had got used it. Perhaps too much, actually.

Yet her friend had got the guts to start this conversation she had desperately tried to push away, hoping it would disappear by itself at some point. Jane had dared; when she had simply run away.

She liked it the way it was. She liked their encounters, this odd relation they had built in secret. It didn't have to change. As long as there was nobody else in the picture, the situation was fine to her. A lot easier than to face and assume all these things she dreaded; all these decisions that would nuance her life one way or another with the impossibility to ever come backwards if she happened to not like it. If it happened to turn bad.

The only vow she had made to herself years before was that nothing would ever change. It hurt less, that way. It hurt a lot less, no mattered what it implied as well.

Still confused, she finally drove off but soon realized that she didn't want to go back home. Not yet. It was too early to face the emptiness of her house. As she passed Boston Common, Jane's words were resounded loud in her head. Why had she dared to speak? Things would have been easier if she had just pretended; as they had always done until now. Weren't they happy the way it was already?

A few flags caught her attention on her left. She parked a few feet away before walking back towards them. As she passed the doors, her high heels resounded loud on the marble floor. She headed to the elevators.

If she hadn't mixed the dates, then she was probably still in town. Hopefully. The elevator stopped in a ringing tone, which made Maura jump of surprise. It didn't take her long to find the door. She knocked on it. Would she be there? After all, her agenda was quite full when she came to Boston.

But the door opened and as Maura looked up, she plunged her panicked eyes into her mother's more than surprised ones. Taken aback by the unexpected visit, Constance remained quiet; obviously waiting for an explanation. It took all the efforts in the world for the blonde to manage to say something. And as she did, she finally broke into tears.

"You have adopted an idiot."


	14. Chapter 14

**Maura**

"Vodka won't solve your problems."

Glass in hand, Maura looked up at her mother sat on the couch of her hotel room, in front of her. The tears had ceased to fall but they had left a bitter taste on her soul. She needed time to process all these things that were twirling in her head to the point they made her feel dizzy. Time and a few words.

"I know..."

She took a sip of her drink, alcohol burning her throat before embracing her stomach of a well-known warmth. Until now, Constance had been patient and let her recompose herself but the scientist knew that – at some point – she would have to talk.

"What happened, Maura?"

They had never been close. All her life the honey blonde had hoped for a strong connection between her mother and herself but it had never happened. Until now. Why was Constance suddenly showing interest in her life? It was disturbing; as much as she felt like embracing it once and for all.

"She gave me a chance but I ran away. She made the first step... She dared... Yet I didn't stay. I didn't give a proper answer either. I..."

Maura looked around at the hotel suite pointlessly then shrugged as her eyes stopped on a cell phone resting on the coffee table.

"I ran away..."

As if the realization had suddenly hit her, she hid her face between her hands and moaned; distressed. There was a reason why she wasn't good at human relationships. The last scene with Jane proved it, one more time. With this typical calm that people tended to assimilate to coldness, her mother frowned but didn't move. Instead, Constance plunged her eyes in hers then shook her head.

"Why did you do that? I thought it was what you wanted; or at least what you advanced the last time we spoke... Shouldn't you be happy and celebrating, now?"

Maura took another sip of her drink and faced the cruel emptiness of the glass. She needed another one immediately. Vodka, whiskey... Anything strong enough that would make her feel tipsy.

"I don't want to lose her."

The words sounded fair – firmed – yet a veil of vulnerability spread over them as they floated in the air. She was being sincere except it hurt. It hurt deeply.

"And... That's why you ran away?"

The police siren pierced the silence; in the background. The car passed by the hotel – down the street – probably heading towards the harbor. The medical examiner focused on it until the sound disappeared and she had no other choice but to keep on talking.

"I can't afford to lose her. If... If I give in and something happens to her... I will never be able to cope with it. Her job... You have no idea how risky her life is; all the things she faces. And what I see arrive at the morgue every morning. I don't want to have to identify her body, even less determine the cause of her death... I can't get attached to her sentimentally."

For the very first time – as the words were sliding on her lips out loud – Maura realized the weight her professional life had on her daily existence.

Her vision of things had changed irremediably through the years, the dark experiences she had faced. She spent her time analyzing the gloomy side of men; facing details most of the population preferred to ignore when it came to human beings. The darkest barbary. If she had ever been genuine, she could now affirm that naivety had left her for a very long while.

"But honey, you are already attached to her. You can't control your feelings. No one can do such a thing and you know it. Your Cartesian mind prevails enough for you to draw evident conclusion over the way human beings work... Nobody wants to lose a beloved one but missing out the uniqueness of love just because you are scared is a lot worse."

Troubled and embarrassed, Maura looked down at her feet. Everything was fake; everything was a pure facade and she knew it. Her so-called self-confidence had never existed. She pretended, with more or less success; using a maximum of artifices to cheat.

"I am a coward."

Constance snorted, obviously unconvinced. Unless she was just annoyed because cowardice was not a temper feature that belonged to the Isles.

"You have always been everything but a coward. Even as a child, you liked defying authority in order to try things by yourself. You are ambitious and daring. You made it even clearer the day you ignored people's advices and chose to become a medical examiner. It was a singular decision that surely requires guts. Abandoning ourselves to someone's love is always scaring, Maura. But it is also the most beautiful thing that one can do."

…

**Jane**

The first thing Jane noticed as she woke up turned out to be the smell of bacon and eggs; and a scent that seemed to float around but she couldn't identify properly. Keeping her eyes closed, she rolled on her side in bed but didn't feel the light coming from the windows as it should. Instead, the sun was caressing her legs. Her heart began to beat faster – her senses now fully awake – and as she sat up and looked around, she came to the conclusion that she had already assumed a few seconds earlier: she was not in her bed.

Like in bad scenario, she found her clothes scattered around on the floor; her shoes by the door. Panic had officially spread on her mind as the loud silence of guilt was starting to weigh on her shoulders; on her broken heart. She had screwed it big time.

Trying desperately to push back the tears that were asking for nothing but to come out, she hid her face in her hands and swallowed hard. Why had she done that?

The evening research for a witness at the BPD had turned frustrating. For the very first time since the beginning of the serial killer case, they had a lead. Yet their witness was nowhere to be seen. Defeated, she had left the office late in the night and out of frustration, she had called Charlie.

Then she had slept with him.

Did the artist have the mere idea that all along, she had thought about nobody but Maura? That she had come to him only because the honey blonde's blurry reaction had taken her aback to the point her heart still hurt right now?

Perhaps she had been genuine but she hadn't planned her friend's reaction. Of all the scenarios she had imagined, Maura rejecting her hadn't been part of any. Too much self-confidence? She bit her lower lip. Charlie had been awfully patient with her – not complaining about her singular behavior that was far from being the one of a thirty-seven-year-old person a man would have been dating.

Until the previous night, they had barely kissed once. Even for their getaway out of Boston, they had slept in separate rooms. Because she had asked for it. Because she couldn't do it.

But now she had ruined everything.

In a hurry, she retrieved for her clothes – put them on – and took a deep breath as she headed towards the kitchen corner of the loft. Charlie welcomed her with a bright smile.

He looked incredibly happy when she felt atrociously guilty.

"I made scrambled eggs."

Without saying a word, Jane looked down at the plate that was waiting for her. She never ate scrambled eggs in the morning. Of course, he couldn't guess. No.

But Maura knew it.

Maura...

Twisting her hands nervously, the brunette counted until five in her head and bit her lower lip; trying to ignore the nausea she was feeling.

"We need to talk, Charlie."


	15. Chapter 15

_**Author's notes: thank you very much for all the reviews, I really appreciated them. As promised, this story is finished and yet not really. Looking forward to reading your reviews for the sequel.**_

_**...**_

**Maura**

The sound of suitcases rolling on the floor was getting mixed into the brouhaha of travelers and a voice on a microphone - from time to time – accompanied by a jingle that asked for someone. Standing alone in the middle of the crowd, Maura felt lost; invisible. Her heart beating loud and fast in her chest since she had left home an hour earlier.

"_We only live once."_

Her mother's words echoed in her head as she swallowed hard. She wasn't panicking but still felt a tad nervous. Because of the circumstances. Clutched to her suitcase, she remained still; observing people coming and going.

Once she had finally driven back to her house after a whole night spent at the hotel with her mother – a night made of talks and confessions – she had sat on her couch for long hours, staring blankly in front of her as if an invisible point would bring her to take the right decision. She knew what she wanted – from Jane, from the whole world – but finding the courage to abandon herself to it was hard. Yet all of a sudden, she had stood up and headed to her bedroom to pack.

She hadn't tried to reach her friend; not even a phone call. After all, Jane had made it clear that it would depend on the airport, whether she would be there or not.

Besides, she had seen on television how the BPD had finally managed to arrest the serial killer who had terrorized Boston underground world. The detective had probably been busy, closing the case before a well-deserved vacation out of the city.

For the thousandth time already, Maura checked her cell phone and with a shaking hand, grabbed her flight tickets. The check-in would close in twenty minutes. Something was wrong. Jane was never late. One could reproach many things to the brunette but certainly not a lack of punctuality.

Until now.

What if she had changed her mind? A bit defeated, the medical examiner let the thoughts she had tried to ignore finally kick in. Jane had given her three days but that was before the blonde had run away and literally disappeared from her life for the next forty-eight hours. Perhaps her uncertainty had pushed her friend to abandon the idea of a potential relationship.

Maura bit her lower lip. If it was the case then it was all her fault, in the end.

Slightly desperate, she observed the crowd of travelers and remembered the last scene of _Love Actually. _They had watched it – with Jane – a few months earlier and suddenly, she had the feeling to be plunged in it. People were hugging, crying. Saying goodbye, throwing themselves in each other's arms. A whole life made of strong, unique feelings.

While she remained alone and anxious among it.

The announcement for her flight pierced through the microphone in the terminal. Again. Disarmed, she looked at the attendants a few feet away. What was she supposed to do? If Jane didn't show up, would she go back home or choose to disappear for a while and head to the Cyclades Islands as planned?

"Maura!"

Of course, she recognized the voice. And as she turned around – obvious that people were now observing them since Jane had literally shouted out her name – she saw the brunette run to her; a suitcase in hand.

"I... I got stuck.. In traffic."

The detective was breathless – slightly red – and on the verge to pass out. But she was there and all of a sudden, this was the only thing Maura focused on. What were they supposed to do, now? Jane looked at her feet for a few seconds and shook her head before plunging her eyes in the blonde's. She seemed a tad sorry; almost guilty.

"About Charlie, I... We br-..."

The end of her sentence vanished in the brouhaha of the airport as Maura put a finger on Jane's lips.

"I don't mind."

The honey blonde's whisper brushed the detective's lips before dying in a long, awaited kiss. Relieved – happy – Maura finally let go of her suitcase and passed her arms around Jane's neck as she deepened the embrace.

She didn't care about Charlie; didn't want to know what had happened or not happened. If the brunette was there then it meant that the rest of the world could disappear and they would be fine with it.

They didn't need anyone else to be happy.

She broke the kiss only to plunge her face in the depths of Jane's neck; holding her tight, too afraid she might vanish before her eyes.

"I missed you so much..."

…

**Jane**

Salad bowl in hand, she furtively cast a glance at the kitchen – the living-room to make sure that nobody was around – before planting a kiss on Maura's lips. The blonde replied by a smile and without a word, headed out to the patio of her house.

They had come back from Greece a couple of days ago – relaxed, suntanned and happy. In love; even if nobody but themselves knew it. Their first vacations as a couple had been perfect, following a disturbing logic; the evidence they were made for each other. Doubts had finally flown away, replaced by a thousand dreams.

The detective abandoned the salad bowl by the beers; grabbed a bottle. Everyone had managed to come for the annual barbecue her mother organized at the end of the summer. September was right around the corner and temperatures had finally cooled down a bit. The city wasn't suffocating anymore but perfect for a late-night walk by the streets.

"With this motorbike, you can definitely go to California."

Angela scoffed at Frost's suggestion and vehemently shook her head at Frankie; hands on her hips as if to highlight her disapproval even more.

"Don't even dare to go that far on this evil machine!"

Of course, Korsak decided to join the conversation. Abandoning the barbecue for a minute, he turned around and lost himself in mechanical details.

Leaned against the table where the buffet was settled, Jane smiled; observing the scene in silence, beer in hand. These people were her family, the ones she could count on whenever she needed it.

Quietly, Maura stopped by her side and let her fingers caress the brunette's ones before holding her hand tightly. Nobody was paying attention to them, too focused as they were on the potential risks of a travel to the West Coast.

"Maura and I are a couple."

All of a sudden, the motorbike debate stopped and everyone turned around to look at them. They were still holding hands, smiling peacefully.

Jane nodded to herself. Yes, these people were her family. And if life was a game, then she had taken her chances. She turned her head around and planted a soft kiss on Maura's lips.

She had taken her chances only to win.

_**To be continued...**_


End file.
